


Bearly Holy

by EmilyKaldwin



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: F/F, let pike kiss pretty buff ladies, tova is my bear wife and i love her
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-03-31
Updated: 2017-03-31
Packaged: 2018-10-13 07:23:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 651
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10509054
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmilyKaldwin/pseuds/EmilyKaldwin
Summary: Sometimes life gives you second chances.Or, Pike's sweetheart was Tova all along because I said so.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So turns out I have a weakness for tiny strong ladies falling in love and finding each other again. And rarepairs.

It might have surprised her current friends, but Pike had been quite an unruly child.

In her teenage years, the streets of Westruun were hers to terrify, running after squealing chickens as her elders were grumbling about _those darn Trickfoots_. She would armwrestle with the strongest farmboys, steal firecider from her great great grandfather’s reserves and duel imaginary undead hordes hiding in the pumpkin patches on the north side of town. Oh, of course, she knew that Sarenrae (and Wilhand) would frown on those less-than-holy activities, but it was such a hard-earned reprieve from her studies that she figured some bouts of rowdiness weren’t that bad.

And of course, there was her.

She wasn’t that much older than her, but to Pike she was a beacon of everything exciting and _cool_ this life had to offer. Tova, with her short brown hair she liked to wear wild and free, her wicked grins that would send unexplained shivers through the gnome’s body, Tova who would always stand fearless and be the first to try anything. Who, at five-and-ten and on a stout dwarf frame, could rival in strength any of the bullies who tried to bother the diminutive gnome; who would say to any who might listen that her father was a bear and that she would tear apart any and all who tried to exclude her friend. Mind you, she wasn’t the most charismatic girl to outsiders, but to Pike she was a well of joy and fun.

Maybe in another story, Pike sometimes told herself, she would have been brave enough to admit her feelings to herself in time. Maybe if she could have put words on the warmth in her chest sooner, she could have had the strength to keep her close. But it wasn’t to be, as the beautiful girl with the soul of a bear left with her mother one day to go live in distant Wildmount, with a crude pendant and a kiss on the cheek as parting gifts to her crying friend.

Obviously Pike didn’t stay alone for long, as a bleeding goliath boy was brought into her life shortly after, but she always kept a torn place in her heart for the love who got away. As the years went by, she found herself catching glimpses of her in some of her adopted family; her heart was full of love to bursting, but even then she ached for that crooked smile and those eyes who always seemed to be able to see her real self, no pedestal included.

It had been years and years now, and her heart, that had been broken over and over by being separated from her friends and by crossing through the veil, pulled her forward in a familiar sensation: her family was in danger. Closing her eyes, she prayed once again to Sarenrae for a chance to save them, those bumbling fools who were now getting in trouble in Hell of all places. She felt her goddess’s arms wrapping around her in a warm embrace, and her body starting to glow with familiar divine power.

The heat still hit her like a warhammer even in her projected form. She quickly opened her eyes while hearing the relieved sighs around her; usually that came with her friends shouting her name, but now they seemed intent on calling her… Mike? Quickly scanning the group, she saw the usual buffoons, making a mental countdown as she went: Grog, Keyleth (though somehow horned? she’d ask later), twins, Percy, the sparkly tin can who tagged along, no Scanlan (ah yes, there was still that pang of guilt), and…

Her hair was longer now.

And of course she had giant claw marks on her face.

And fur.

But that was-

“Pike? Is that you? What’s all that glowy bullshit, am I having a fever dream right now?”

She never thought she could smile that big.


End file.
